Great Western Centre to open in Minchinbury
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A developer has given a sneak-peak at a multimillion-dollar retail and dining hub set to open this month in western Sydney.
The $70 million Great Western Centre will transform the once-vacant block of land on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Carlisle Ave in Minchinbury into a bustling commercial precinct.
Developer Brenex is behind the centre which is due to open later this month and will feature local retailers and big-box chains such as Petbarn, SuperCheap Auto and Total Tools.
Father and son team Frank and Anthony Carioti said the project aimed to be a “lifestyle, food and services” hub with 27 retailers including a childcare centre and gym.
The Cariotis said the development aimed to set itself apart from homemaker-style centres and would instead cater for a mix of tradies, mums and foodies.
The centre’s food offerings include popular brunch spot XS Espresso, Italian pizza and pasta bar Product of Italy and Mexican food chain Zambrero.
Overcoming setbacks posed by the COVID pandemic, the Cariotis estimated that the project had generated up to 1000 local jobs and would fill a hole in the local market.
“Our main target is the tradies, the mums,” Anthony Carioti said.
“It’s a family centre and we wanted to steer clear of something too overwhelming and create something where you can come here and feel comfortable and the husband can go to Autobarn and the wife can get a coffee at XS Espresso and get her nails done for example.
“We are of Italian background, so for us, everyone meets in the piazza. If you look at the way they create their cities, and the same way we created the car park, everything goes to the centre, so we tried to go around that mentality.
“A lot of these centres are very weekend-oriented, we wanted this one to be seven day-oriented, a tradie can come and get his tools, grab a burger and come back at night and go to the gym.”
Frank Carioti said the centre was designed with a new era of retail in mind, focused on bringing people out from the online shopping world of the pandemic.
“It’s made me see beyond retail. The days of retail as we know are in the past – as long as you can get something online, people don’t want to walk anywhere,” Frank Carioti said.
“This is also a manifestation of the take up for the foodies and we’ve had an amazing response.”
The centre is set to open on May 29.
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